The American Voter Countdown

The American voter countdown continues. Are you going to be part of the process? Are you plugged in? Are you doing your due diligence? Well, you may not want to be part of it, but the American people depend on you. We depend on each other!

Did you know that every American has a voter score? The big companies have access to the voter score database, and they want to know whether you voted or not. In fact, they can track your participation in the last four elections and know which party you are affiliated with. So you can imagine how they might use this information. For example, they might send you special mailers to get you to participate, or send volunteers to knock on your door for a more personal touch. One of their goals is to find out why you don’t insist on your right to vote, and if possible, to get you to change. They might even avoid you altogether because you aren’t a threat to the “current system.”

I also want to know why you don’t vote. Is it because you have lost faith in the system? Is it that you just can’t stand the way the system works? Do you think it’s corrupt? Or are you too busy and don’t want to be bothered?

But let me ask you something. What if your rights were taken suddenly taken away, or they were slowly chipped away? What if 10 years from now you don’t have the same rights, freedoms and liberties? If you knew that your vote could help retain those rights, freedoms and liberties, would you vote?

As Americans, we need to demand good service from our elected officials who work for us. Why is it that we demand good service at the burger joint or the department store when a product isn’t what we ordered, but then we don’t say a word or raise our voices when laws are broken or we sense an injustice? Isn’t our Country worth fighting for? Do we or don’t we support our troops? Then why don’t we watch over our Country and our leaders to confirm they are doing the right thing?

We can’t forget that our nation has haters! These haters don’t want us to have these rights under the U.S. Constitution—the rights offered to us by God and the Declaration by our Founding Fathers. The haters know that they can erode our political system if we Americans don’t appreciate our rights, if we don’t use them, and if we don’t fight to keep them.

This year, I’m asking you to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. If you have not registered to vote, then start there! If you are registered, then vote and vote completely! Now is the time to use this voting season as a teaching moment: for our kids, for our friends, for our fellow workers. It is time to have a respectful, passionate conversation. It is time to explore the possibilities and ask lots of questions. It is time to think long term, not short term. It is time to think about the legacy we will leave to our children. Stand up and be counted.

The following is a quote from a speech by Ronald Reagan in 1961 as he spoke about socialized medicine: “Until, one day, as Normal Thomas said we will awake to find that we have socialism. And if you don’t do this and if I don’t do it, one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children, what it once was like in America when men were free.”